The Neon CLI is a command-line interface that lets you manage Neon directly from the terminal. This guide will help you quickly set up and start using the Neon CLI.

  1. Install the CLI

    Choose your platform and install the Neon CLI:

    Install with Homebrew

    brew install neonctl

    Install via npm

    npm i -g neonctl

    Install with bun

    bun install -g neonctl

    Verify the installation by checking the CLI version:

    neon --version

    For the latest version, refer to the Neon CLI GitHub repository

  2. Authenticate

    Authenticate with your Neon account using one of these methods:

    Web Authentication (recommended)

    Run the command below to authenticate through your browser:

    neon auth

    This will open a browser window where you can authorize the CLI to access your Neon account.

    API Key Authentication

    Alternatively, you can use a Neon API key. You can create one in the Neon Console. See Create a personal API key.

    neon projects list --api-key <your-api-key>

    To avoid entering your API key with each command, you can set it as an environment variable:

    export NEON_API_KEY=<your-api-key>

    For more about authenticating, see Neon CLI commands — auth.

  3. Set up your context file

    Context files allow you to use CLI commands without specifying your project or organization IDs every time.

    To set the context for your Neon project:

    neon set-context --project-id <your-project-id>

    You can find your Neon project ID by opening your project in the Neon Console and navigating to Settings > General.

    Th the set-context command creates a .neon file in your current directory with your project context.

    $ cat .neon

{
  "projectId": "cool-darkness-12345678"
}%

    You can also create named context files for different projects:

    neon set-context --project-id <your-project-id> --context-file my-project-context

    For organization-level operations, you can create named organization context file:

    neon set-context --org-id <your-org-id> --context-file my-org-context

    To switch contexts, add the --context-file option to any command, specifying your context file:

    neon branches list --context-file Documents/my-org-context

    For more about the set-context command, see Neon CLI commands — set-context.

  4. Enable shell completion

    Next, you can set up autocompletion to make using the CLI faster:

    neon completion >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

    Now you can press Tab to complete commands and options. For further details, see Neon CLI commands — completion.

  5. Common operations

    Here are some common operations you can perform with the Neon CLI:

    List your projects

    neon projects list

    If you want to list projects in your organization, don't forget to set your organization context or specify --org-id <your-org-id>. Otherwise, you'll list the projects in your personal Neon account.

    For more about the projects command, see Neon CLI commands — projects.

    Create a branch

    neon branches create --name <branch-name>

    Set your project context or specify --project-id <your-project-id> if you have more than one Neon project.

    For more about the branches command, see Neon CLI commands — branches.

    Get a connection string

    This will give you the connection string for the default branch in your project:

    neon connection-string

    For a specific branch, specify the branch name:

    neon connection-string <branch-name>

    There's lots more you can do with the connection-string command. See Neon CLI commands — connection-string.

  6. Next steps

    Now that you're set up with the Neon CLI, you can:

    • Create more Neon projects with neon projects create
    • Manage your branches with various neon branches commands such as reset, restore, rename, schema-diff, and more
    • Create and manage databases with neon databases create
    • Create and manage roles with neon roles create
    • View the full set of Neon CLI commands available to you with neon --help

    For more details on all available commands, see the CLI Reference.